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Fact of the day

Podio, a project management software company, has created a curious interactive infographic about how famous artists, philosophers, writers, and composers structured their daily life, as recorded in their own diaries and letters. Using data from Daily Rituals by author Mason Currey, the infographic shows how each person divided their time to work at their creative […]

After a video that went viral in 2012 showing a bus monitor getting bullied by students – a Canadian man set up a fundraiser to collect $5,000 for a vacation for her. In the end, they ended up collecting and giving the women over $700,000. She has since retired.

After Hitler ordered the deportation of Denmark’s Jewish population, Danish citizens organized a massive evacuation of the Jews to neutral Sweden, despite the risks. In the end, 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust.

During the Chernobyl Disaster, Aleksandr Lelechenko saved his colleagues from radiation exposure by walking through radioactive water three times in place of his younger colleagues. He died less than 2 weeks after the disaster.

75% of Japanese homes have a hi-tech toilet and the latest models eliminate the need for TP, keep you warm, check your blood pressure, play running-water sounds to increase privacy and open and close automatically so you don’t have to touch anything.

Vikings used ravens to navigate. They brought ravens aboard their ships, then released them and sailed in the same direction to find land. The raven was so important to them that it became the symbol on their flag.

Bill Haast, known as “Snake Man,” was bitten by venomous snakes more than 170 times. By injecting himself with snake venom daily for over 60 years, he saved countless lives with his antibody rich blood. He lived to be 100.

George Reeves, the actor who played Superman in the 1950s was wary because some fans tried to test his “invulnerability.” At one appearance a young fan pulled a pistol on him. Reeves convinced him to hand over the gun by telling him that a bystander could be hurt when the bullets bounced off

Poison control centers across the US are monitoring a recent increase in the trend of teenagers getting drunk by consuming hand sanitizer. In an effort to educate the public about the trend's detrimental effects, these centers will be publicizing preventative methods, according to James Mowry, director of Indiana Poison Center.

Jumping on the political bandwagon, a cat in Russia followed the example of a fellow Virginia-based feline to launch a political career, aiming for a seat in the legislature of the country’s fourth-biggest city.

New Jersey woman, 31-year-old Rabita Sarker, gave birth on a moving Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) train yesterday morning. She and her husband Aditya Saurabh were heading to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan for a "practice run". She gave birth between the Journal Square and 33rd Street stations at 9:49 am ET (1449 UTC).

As of December 1, 2011, it is illegal to be homeless in the European country of Hungary, as a new law prohibiting it comes into effect. Those who are found to be in breach of this law will initially be given a warning for sleeping out on the streets. Offenders may also face a fine of US$600, which equates to £382 or €445, or a jail sentence.

A former write-in candidate for Arizona governor who flew to Ukraine in May to meet his internet date was discovered last week among homeless people at a train station in the small Ukrainian town of Chernovtsy, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported on Tuesday.

A 100-year-old Briton has become the world's oldest marathon runner after finishing a race in Canada.Fauja Singh, from Ilford, east London, ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in eight hours, 25 minutes and 16 seconds. The record-holder "hit the wall" at 22 miles but soldiered on for another two hours and finished in 3,850th place, ahead of five other competitors. Mr Singh, who took up running 11 years ago after his wife and son died, trains every day by running 10 miles.

Sexy video clips have a more negative influence on girls than on boys, says Dutch pop professor Tom ter Bogt. Ter Bogt investigated the influence of sexy video clips on the thoughts, behaviour and self-image of 13 to 16 year old children. After viewing the clips, girls felt that outward appearance was more important, they were less satisfied with their own appearance, and they became less resolute in denying permissive sex.

Heidemarie Schwermer, a 69-year-old woman from Germany, gave up using money 15 years ago and says she’s been much happier ever since.

Heidemarie’s incredible story began 22 years ago, when she, a middle-aged secondary school teacher emerging from a difficult marriage, took her two children and moved to the city of Dortmund, in Germany’s Ruhr area. One of the first things she noticed was the large number of homeless people, and this shocked her so much that she decided to actually do something about it. She had always believed the homeless didn’t need actual money to be accepted back into society, only a chance to empower themselves by making themselves useful, so she opened a Tauschring (swap shop), called “Gib und Nimm” (Give and Take).

In the Central Lowlands of Scotland, the University of Dundee is to become the first university in the United Kingdom to provide degrees in comic studies. The university has said that courses for its comic studies subject within the English section will commence in September 2011.

A 39-year old woman, Lakeysha Beard, talked for more than half a day while on an Amtrak train going from Oakland, California, to Salem, Oregon. The loud cellphone conversation lasted sixteen hours last Monday, after which police stopped the train for twenty minutes to arrest the woman.